Aggressive male

[chrissyoscar]

I have a pair of Red Turq's I'm trying to breed but the male is very aggressive towards the female.
He's been doing this for awhile now and it's beginning to concern me.
He's continuously chasing and nipping her and you can see that she's becoming stressed by it. I think he's doing it because he's eager to breed but because of it she's only laying eggs every 2 weeks or so and the last batch she laid lasted less than six hours. If it continues should I just give up and try and find a suitable male for her or is this common.
My other pair are the complete opposite they're only laid eggs twice with no luck but I've never seen that male showing any aggression to the female.
Should I put a divider and seperate them or is that only a waste of time?

Oscar

[flukes]

My male PB is exactly the same, although i was concerned at the start, he wont do her any harm.

If it gets out of control you might want to seperate them, but i found he is just showing his intrest for her..

[chrissyoscar]

Thanks Flukes

It's good to see that other males also do it.
The funny thing is that sometimes he ignores her so she'll swim up to him and give him a few nips which only angers him. He'll then chase her all around the tank nipping and pushing her into a corner then he'll leave her alone for awhile.

Oscar

[flukes]

Sounds like me and my Mrs... :wink:

As long as he isnt doing serious damage she will soon come around..

[Merrilyn]

Oscar, just a note of caution. Watch the level of aggression from the male. He can do a lot of damage to her if he continually rams her in the side. I find that if the male is aggressive to the female at this point, they will usually end up fighting over the eggs or fry and one has to be removed at that time anyway.

I find a change of partners can usually settle things down, or at least separate them for a while to allow her to fill with eggs. If you can, put her in another tank where he cannot see her, and then try them together again after about a month.

BTW this aggression is not a normal thing with discus in the wild. Usually the female would just swim away from an aggressive mate and form a bond with another male. It's because we keep them in a relatively small amount of water and the female cannot get away from the male that we have problems.

[chrissyoscar]

Thanks Merrilyn.

Yeah I didn't think it was natural behavier but as quite a few people have the same problem I wasn't sure if there was anything that can be done you know once a bully always a bully.
I got a divider made up but I haven't used it yet. He seems to have settled down a little so for now I'll just watch and if he becomes a problem again I'll put the divider up.
If that doesn't work I have a Spotted Snakeskin in my community tank that I'm 80% sure is a male so I'll change partners.
I'm not sure if a Red Turq and a Spotted Snakeskin are the best combination but I might have no choice.

Again thanks for your help

Oscar